To get action, Clinton sends Mondale to Jakarta and stern words to Tokyo

Get with the program! That was the message U.S. policymakers delivered to Indonesia and Japan last week as Washington struggled to keep the economic turmoil in Asia from spiraling out of control. In a week of public and private arm twisting, Bill Clinton dispatched former Vice President Walter Mondale to riot-plagued Indonesia, where President Suharto is trying to backpedal from the terms of a $43 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. Among the 70-year-old Mondale's tasks will be to persuade the 76-year-old Suharto to make good on promises to break up monopolies and cartels run by the autocrat's cronies and members of...